No Matter What - Epilogue

Authors note: This is kind of a follow up to No Matter What. I strongly suggest you read the first part if you want to understand any of this.

Sarah opened the fridge and put the leftover cake away.

“What a party!” she exclaimed to the rest of the group who were helping her clean TAN’s new meeting space.

“I’ll say,” Jose laughed. “Who would have thought that a tiny group of me, Tony, and Amanda would get so popular?”

“Well it helped when PFLAG started referring people to us,” Dorothy added.

The six of the seven people who had stayed to clean up sat down in the lounge area.

“I remember my first meeting,” Dorothy pondered. “It felt like a group of old friends just hanging out at Jose’s house.”

“That was what? About five years ago?” Kara asked as she joined the rest. Of course she had helped herself to a piece of the leftover cake.

“Just about,” she replied. “And the four of us shared some of our worst memories. And look at us now...” she wondered.

“Time can change a lot of things, Dorothy,” Mike said. “Even my little brother’s grown up. He and I had a nice long ‘talk’,” he made finger quotes around the word. “And now he’s a lot less of a homophobic asshole.”

“I don’t care how old you are, Mike, if you keep cursing like that, I will take this crutch and knock you in the butt,” Amanda informed her son.

He chuckled. “You couldn’t catch me on that sprained ankle of yours.”

“Perhaps not, but I’ve got friends here who’d help slow you down.”

He widened his eyes and looked around the room in exaggerated mock terror.

“You guys do realize that we’re all grown adults here, right?” Anthony asked.

“Hell, Kara and I are the youngest ones here and we’re acting more mature than any of you,” Sarah laughed.

The entire group was in good spirits. The party had been to celebrate the official three year mark. Tan had been picked up by the local lgbt center and had become an official program, as opposed to an informal group meeting in somebody’s living room.

“Speaking of mature,” Kara interrupted, “Sarah, I have a question to ask you.”

A smile creeped onto Amanda and Dorothy’s faces. They’d already figured out what was happening.

Kara put her plate on the table nearby and got down on her knee. “The rules don’t really say who’s supposed to propose in a lesbian couple, so … will you marry me?”

Sarah nodded her head frantically and when she was able to make words she said, “YesyeysyesyesyesyesYES!”

“So I take it you mean yes?” Jose joked.

Sarah pulled Kara into a tight squeeze. “I love you so MUCH!”

“You’re squishing my boobs,” Kara mumbled.

There was another round of laughs as Sarah let Kara loose.

“You know this party was to celebrate so much more than just TAN, right?” Dorothy spoke. “It was also to celebrate us. Those of us sitting right here in this room. I think you guys have helped me get through more than anything else these last few years. I was so close to giving up five years ago. Even I didn’t know how close I was to just breaking and losing everything. But five years ago, Jose invited me to TAN, and everything changed.”

She was crying, and as she spoke, her voice wavered. “Jose, you’ve been there for all of us. I know you have heartaches of your own, but it seemed that any time somebody needed to talk, you were always available. And Amanda, without your guidance and advice, I would not be the woman I am today. Kara? Sarah? Please never change. Your unwavering hope always helps when somebody’s just not feeling right. Never lose that hope. Tony, I don’t know what our little rag-tag group would have done without your level head. I mean, without you, we’d all be a bit of a mess, now wouldn’t we?”

She took a moment to collect herself. “Mike, I don’t know you quite as well, but I want to thank you too. Your automatic acceptance of your mom, and of everyone, is inspirational.”

She trailed off. Nobody said anything for a while. There really wasn’t anything that could follow that little speech.

Then she smiled. Her tears were still flowing, but she smiled. “I guess we really can’t have a TAN meeting without one of us going all mushy, huh?”

“No, I guess we can’t,” Jose answered. “But I guess that’s what you expect when you get a bunch of girls together.”

Kara threw a couch cushion at him. “Shut it, you!”